Master of Tactics is a 4X Turn Based Strategy Game. It is heavy on strategy and light on micro management. Free to download and play. Master of Tactics is fully featured and deep strategy game and written in Java!!!!

Currently it comes in two formats, Windows install / uninstall and a binary zip file (simple unzip in any folder and run). I intend to release multi-player, online single player and online multi-player soon.

This game is my hobby and it spent 15 years in development to reach this stage. Perfection is an aim and not a state - therefore I intend to continue improving MoT. 1000's of people have played it already. I would like to encourage all players interested in TBS gaming to make suggestions, write reviews and contribute to making this game better. I have received several suggestions from the public that are already in the game!

My First Run Through: I go through the tutorial and colonize a planet. I finish research of the second hull/chassis design and after a while figure out that you have to pre-design ships before you build them and how to do this (which for some reason wasn't in the tutorial? Seems pretty essential to me). I design a ship with weapons (since all the surrounding solar systems are full of enemies) and after a lot of end-turn-button-spamming, manage to build two of them. A "Khan" (or was it Kaan) arrives in my solar system and proceeds to destroy both the ships with ease. I rage quit.

Now I fully intend to try again (I would have done before posting but it's late and I wanted to say this before I forgot/lost interest), and I hope I was just the victim of extreme bad luck, however I don't see how you think this can be a final version when I get an experience like that. It clearly isn't just a learning project so I feel that you should at the least be looking at balancing aspects of the game. Especially if you expect some people to pay for it.

Oh thanks, with the new info it was fun for a much longer time (i played this way longer then i should have).Playing on easy was in fact very easy, i could even win from these ancients, however their function was not clear to me.The customization was very fun for me, to bad the close and cancel button are so alike, clicked so many times wrong .

Still you got some work into this, replace some boring list with actual graphics.Also instead of bugging the user with a project window, you could add a graphical indication on the planet whether they are working or not.I still don't know about trading or how to get these crystals to create planets.

1 - Adding a graphical indicator if a planet is building something is a great idea.

2 - I shall add a tutorial on craft design.

3 - Boralium crystals are not something you are guaranteed to get. They are a special resource or prize you may be lucky enough to have. I shall add more details to the manual on boralium crystals and provide more in game information.

The game is a deep and complex game but it's important to ease people in. Complexity should be there for experts and not required for a novice (as much as possible). For a space Kaan to exist means another player has fought a battle in a Nebula. Maybe I need to make sure the space Kaan does not attack people when playing easy?

Note - The button 'Build on All Idle' allows you to set projects on mass.

Version 1.07 has some significant improvements: - On the battle map you get hover icons showing you where you are trying to move the selected craft and where it will actually move to. As you become better at the game you will find maneuvering on the battlefield is very important so this is a big improvement. - I have also added two new weapon types (Sleep and Teleport). - Fleet window shows the fleet instead of every craft in the fleet. - Available express key short cuts expanded significantly (? displays key bindings, ESC closes windows ….) - Radar Map Panel has bigger icons that are easier to read.

Version 1.07 is in test now but watch out version 1.08, and your suggestions are in!!!

With every version MoT is getting better thanks to your valuable feedback. I have so many ideas I want to include it’s a struggle to find the time because I have a day job (to live). I want to implement supply lines which will add another huge tactical element to the game play (and I believe is another original idea)

Regarding ancients, here is a section from the manual:--------------------------The Ancients are races whose civilisation predate the players. As such they are very powerful. When starting a game you may choose to align yourself with one of the two ancients.

When aligned to an ancient player you get gifted special technologies (not available otherwise). If aligned to an ancient and you declare war on another player with the same alignment you will incur the wroth of that ancient (They will send a marauding fleet – with significant firepower).---------------------------

When I designed this 10 years ago I actually wanted a Babylon 5 theme (hence the alignment to ancients).... I still think it would be a greate idea!

The game uses Java 2D (the jar file contains heaps of images). The planets were produced by rendering a 3D textured model with BUMP maps, semi transparent cloud layer and a reflective atmosphere. My long term aim is to move to 3D but getting multi-player out is higher priority ATM. Anybody with models / images they think may help my email is support at the game's web site URL. Anything must submitted must be free of copyright though - I don't want to get sued!

Version 1.07 has been released containing most your your suggestions. However the major change was command control on the battefield.There is a Craft Design Tutorial, Space Kaan does not attack on easy levels. Less plain text lists and graphical indicators of each planet's build task will be in the next release.

The positioning of your craft on the battlefield is important in Master of Tactics due to concept of flanking and the effects of some weapons.

Prior to version 1.07 clicking on an enemy craft to attack would move your craft as close as possible to the enemy and then fire weapons. But where would the movement AI actually move you craft too? There may be other crafts in the way and you can't end up on top of the target or any other craft! You were reliant on the AI doing exactly what you expected.

Now with movement indicators you can adjust your movement and make it right. Hover over the target craft and a red outline will indicate where you are trying to move your craft while a green outline will indicate where the craft will actually move....

During test we found battefield movement much easier (particularly when added with the improved AI for craft movement!).

So I've just done a quick playthrough. Well it wasn't quick, probably several hours but that's just because I can't say no to the end turn button. And it is immediately better than before. Been too long since I played the lsat version to comment on anything in particular but definitely much more fun now. I just have a few things to say (for now?)

- I found a bug. When you're fighting just a space station, my missiles refused to move. Presumably because they move when the target moves and the space station didn't move? I don't know if this was just a one off because I never fought a station again.

- Ancients are very difficult. Or rather the medium ones are. I din't manage to get a single hit on them at the stage they attacked. The small ones however were a bit too easy for ancients. I killed three of them without loosing a single ship.

- On that note, I think ancients could maybe do more than just attack if you attack their mates. For one they could engage in diplomacy. Maybe warn you off when you attack their allies and defend their planets rather than attack yours? Maybe, it's your game.

- The medium ancient had a habit of teleporting to exactly the same spot. Which was annoying considering it took about 5 seconds each time he did it.

- On THAT note, perhaps a way of speeding up battles. I already have them on auto 80% of the time (not to say that you're improvements aren't a godsend because they are) so why not let me watch them go by at speed?

- You could perhaps start making a comprehensive manual listing all the things you can do and how they effect everything else. Tutorials are all well and good but they aren't good at getting the finer points across and after those several hours there was still a lot I didn't know how to do / didn't know what it did (and presumably a lot I wasn't aware of in the slightest). In fact, in these kind of games, I'm normally browsing through the manual whilst I play and that's half the fun (for me). But just an idea.

- The pictures of the other races make me laugh whenever I see them. I'm not sure if this is good or bad I just thought you'd like to know.

Been playing some more this morning and I've got some more stuff to say.

- Firstly I've just encountered the worst bug you could possibly imagine. The battles don't work anymore. Anyone who tries to attack anyone simply doesn't. But worse still, you then become locked in a "this craft is under attack" and so you can't do anything else with those ships. Super annoying because I'd just mustered a fleet that I thought could take down a medium ancient only to find that I couldn't attack and then I essentially lost the fleet since I couldn't move them about anymore.

- That bug with the missiles and space stations I can confirm now having seen it several times.

- I think there is a bug with the automatic repair special item. The text that pops up when it works says it has repaired 100 points but I can tell you that it is not repairing 100 points. At a guess I'd say it should be 10 but definitely not 100.

- There may be a bug/undesirable behaviour with mines (the static kind). They can be detonated by friendly ships. It was fine for me because I could avoid them but the enemy AIs just didn't. It was great actually because when they launched their fighters, they would fly across the map clearing the mines and blowing themselves up in the process. So I think you should either modify the AIs or not have them be blown up by friendlies.

Now some queries I have.

- I get it when a weapon misses, but what is happening when a weapon hits but does 0 damage? Seemed to happen quite frequently and I'm not sure why.

- What is up with the "missed technologies?" How do you miss a technology and how can you avoid it? Everyone else had lasers (I presume the "fusion beams" which I "missed") and I was stuck with machine guns ("mass drivers").

And lastly a suggestion

- I think some warnings might be in order. For example when an ancient sets course for one of your systems and when an enemy fleet is going to blockade a system that doesn't have any defenses. Because two things kept happening to me. 1) ancients attacked behind my lines where I wasn't looking. 2) Enemy fleets glassed my newly colonized worlds without me noticing they were there. The map is too bug to be watching all of it so I really feel these would help.

Other than that "no battles" bug which I presume makes my save virtually unplayable, good work.

Edit: The "no battles" bug went away after quitting and reloading the game. I won.

Thanks for your feedback - I have now registered to be informed of replies so I can be more prompt!

So now for the answers:

1 - Yes there is a missile / craft not moving bug that has been fixed in the next version. Avoid using the retarget beam because its can put crafts in an invalid state.

2 - Ancients are supposed to be difficult, they are intended to punish and harass. I will place diplomacy with the ancients under advisement - it's not a bad idea. I have had a few complaints about them destroying people in the first game..... so in the next version they are downgraded / disabled on easy / beginner levels.

3 - When you say ancients tend to teleport to the same spot I am not sure if you mean attack the same planet over and over or in battle attack the same area.... They tend to attack your most powerful planets first.

4 - Speed up battles - You can complete a battle at any point pressing the complete button or pressing ESC. Speeding up a battle but still allowing a user to see it, would actually be quite hard but I will consider it, and if others ask it will be done.

5 - There is a manual. Its a PDF file you can find online. Have you found it un-informative or just not found it?

6 - Bad pictures - Yes I know particularly that bear image!! I don't know what I was thinking as I had in my mind a big cuddly bear then gave him red eyes when I realised its silly. I will get round to making better images and animating them one day.

7 - No battles bug I am not sure what you mean. I am glad a restart fixed it. However, if you can describe how to produce this issues I should like to fix it.

8 - Auto repair unit text bug will be fixed.

9 - I have imagined that its a good idea to make mines detonatable by everybody as they are not 'intelligent'. Owners can also set them off to attack ships indirectly.

10 - The '0' damage message. The shield absorbed all the damage, so you got a hit but nothing made it through to the craft. In early versions I had a message like '0 - 5' meaning 0 damage to craft but shields discharged by 5. However, a couple said it was confusing as they did not know what it meant.

11 - Missed technologies are technologies your scientists never thought off. They are there for gameplay because it means you cannot research everything and so must find another way to get tech (usually espionage AND salvage and maybe trading). It is a setup option so you can have no missed techs!

12 - Warnings are a great idea, I shall add them to my TODO list.

The main focus for version 1.08 is better user experience on the battlefield - I have fixed many bugs and idiosyncrasies and spent weeks on this, not making any new features, but making what is there already better. In version 1.07 I added the three move modes (express, move, attack) and improved ship movement AI. In 1.08 I am doing the rest of the battlefield experience!

Thanks for the reply. Was getting worried you'd given up or something and it's nice to know that the time I've put in (obviously it's nothing compared to you/your team. I think you said you had a team) isn't for nothing.

1) Good because that was probably the most annoying thing about the late game.

2) I'm fine with ancients being these super-powerful beings but there has to be something you can do about them. As an example I'm going to reference Dead Space (purely because I've been replaying it recently). I don't know if you've played it but there is this (SPOILER) one creature that you can cut apart but it just regenerates so you can't actually kill it in your first encounter. You have to slow it down and run away. That was fun because even though you couldn't win, you could still prevail. So I just feel the ancients mechanic needs something like that - diplomacy would be a good start but I doubt even that would be enough. You say you want them to punish / harass, well maybe you could have them only deal some damage whereas at the moment they'll wipe out a whole colony, just have them launch a few missiles / blockade the planet or something. This was the most annoying thing in the early game.

3) What I mean is that they teleport next to your ship/station/planet and shoot but the next turn instead of just shooting, they de-materialize and re-materialize on exactly the same spot before shooting again. I think just an oversight in the AI or something?

4) Would be nice but I understand it can be difficult if you have to rework a major mechanic. Instant completion is just very unsatisfying for me at least.

5) I did not know. Will take a look.

6) One day will come one day

7) I have not experienced this bug since so I have no idea what caused it or how to reproduce it. Sorry. Essentially, I would press the attack button and the message would come up "battles begin at the end of each turn" then I press end turn and the turn ends but no battle and no change on the map. After that I would try to move the ships to a different planet but "this ship is under attack" would pop up and it wouldn't let me. This persisted with every battle I (or any AI) tried to start until the restart.

Good

9) Fine but you should make sure the AIs avoid them then.

10) Maybe you could have a shield charge bar as well as a health bar. Actually it's damage isn't it. So maybe a shield drain bar.

2) Ancients currently attack the most powerful players in their random attacks (forgetting the Babylon 5 bit, this was intended to slow the best players defeat of weaker opponents). The wrath fleets are to punish a player for breaking the rules or as revenge for destroying a colony of another player. Diplomacy could be used for both of these events. It would imply the player undertaking an agreement to give something away - so the same effects are achieved. It’s quite a good idea when placed in this light.

3) This is the craft moving to the closest location (to the enemy craft) before firing weapons - when it’s already at the closest location.... fixed in the new version.

4) I have thought of a way I can speed up battles in the game mechanics so watch this space.....

7) If anything like this happens - in the data folder is a file called mot.log (it may contain an error describing what happened). I would appreciate it if you sent it to me then I may be able to fix it.

I long for a team, but it’s just me and I have a day job to live, this is just my hobby!

I've been thinking about the ancients and I think it might just be that they appear a bit too random. With the warnings, it might be a lot better. Just a message from the ancients saying: "we're going to attack your colony here because of your unprovoked attack on ... \ you threaten the balance of power ... Etc " might improve things tremendously.

I'll remember that log file.

You know if you ever need some help, I wouldn't mind lending a hand. I am (in my own opinion) a fairly good programmer with experience of OpenGL in LWJGL. But I have no experience of programming as part of a team. Probably as a co-developer it wouldn't work well but I could just contribute here and there if there is a Todo list about.

Email me - Address is support at the game web site (masteroftacticsgame.com) so we can talk about it.

I can also give you version 1.08 before its released, you can have a play and maybe write a review. There is a facility on desura where I can grant a special key to the 'press' to review the game.... Send me a message on Desura if that tickles your fancy (I can only give you 1.08 once its released via Desura though).

The first thing you will notice about 1.08 is better weapon graphics on the battlefield, icons in text lists and icons for a planet's project on the galaxy map. However, the major change is usability in the battle system, more then 90% of the effort, but mostly invisible!